TikTok Looks to Facilitate Branded AR Campaigns with New Program

TikTok’s looking to help brands create more immersive, engaging campaigns, by adding a new element to its Effects House AR creation tool which will facilitate brand/creator collaborations, offering businesses a new way to connect with the TikTok audience.  

As you can see in this example, the new collaboration option will give businesses a way to tap into AR effects, which can drive significant engagement benefits in the app.

As explained by TikTok:

“Branded Effects are custom effects sponsored by brands. They can be highly customized with branded elements and include features like calls-to-action and custom audience targeting to fit a brand’s specific campaign needs. To kick off Branded Effects in Effect House, brands can begin working with top effect creators who are already creating enormously popular effects on TikTok’s effect creation platform, Effect House.”

Effects House, which TikTok opened up to all creators last April, enables users to build their own, custom AR effects – much like Snapchat’s ‘Lens Studio’ or Meta’s ‘Spark AR’ platform. Utilizing a range of templates and tools to simplify the process, the platform provides a means to construct new experiences in the app.

And now, TikTok’s looking to give these creators a way to monetize their work, which will help it better ingratiate itself with the AR creator community, while also facilitating new options for branded content in the app.

AR is set to become a bigger consideration, with the eventual arrival of AR glasses that will overlay digital effects onto your real world view. But even now, AR effects are becoming increasingly popular. 72% of Snapchat users engage with AR elements every day, while many of these activations end up going viral, as users share effects that contort and transform how you look on screen.

As such, it makes sense for TikTok to tap into this, and provide creators with another means to generate income from the app.

I mean, it might not be the best time to go all-in on stacking your income on TikTok, given the ban talks, but it could provide new opportunities for AR creators in the space.

And for brands, that could also be a way to make a big splash in the app. It won’t necessarily come cheap, but it could be a valuable consideration for the right collaboration and campaign.

TikTok says that brands can talk to their TikTok account representative to book a Branded Effect campaign, while AR creators can fill out this interest form to register for the new program.